


Let The Kids Be Happy Dangit

by imadonut



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: "Normal", Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, I really like taka/mondo, I use parentheses lot, Junko is just a normal student, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Despair Enoshima Junko, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Probably ooc, Recreational Drug Use, Sodham can be seen as platonic or romantic, depends how you look at it, he has no name but ill get back to you when he does, hiro is a stupid dad friend, its just edibles, oops sorry, so there's gonna be a lot of that, sorry - Freeform, still ultimates, theres a puppy now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25517938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imadonut/pseuds/imadonut
Summary: Danganronpa non-despair au one shots. No one dies, the killing game never happened, and it's just a "normal" school for ultimates. They get to act like teenagers and do dumb teenager things now (except for Hiro).
Relationships: Asahina Aoi/Ogami Sakura, Ishimaru Kiyotaka/Oowada Mondo, Kirigiri Kyoko & Naegi Makoto, Soda Kazuichi & Tanaka Gundham, Soda Kazuichi/Tanaka Gundham
Comments: 3
Kudos: 107





	1. Ishimaru Rides a Motorcycle

**Author's Note:**

> These were one-shots originally intended for a friend who'd recently gotten into Danganronpa, but I decided to put them on here because why not. I'm bored and have nothing else to do so I'll take basically any request that isn't smut or kink related. I'm a multishipper so I'll write basically any ship (I'm really bad at writing poly though).

It was common knowledge in class 78 that Mondo was the Ultimate Motorcyclist. Everyone knew this, just as everyone knew everyone else’s Ultimate talents. Despite this, Ishimaru was still surprised when Mondo asked if he wanted a ride on his Motorcycle.

“This is certainly unexpected. Why now?” He asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Currently, both boys were standing outside of their school in the parking lot. Mondo was standing in front of his friend, looking surprisingly sheepish considering his normally brash nature.

“Eh, just a suggestion. ‘S fine if you don’t want to.” He muttered, helmet in hand.

Taka looked at Mondo, then at his motorcycle, then to Mondo again. He knows how dangerous Motorcycles can be, and he knows the chances of a crash being fatal greatly increases when one rides a motorcycle. So, to preserve his own health, the obvious option should be no.

But Taka looked at Mondo, holding a helmet with a spare sitting on the seat of the vehicle. He’d looked sort of excited when he’d asked Taka, like he was hoping he’d say yes.

In Taka’s mind, this seemed odd. Why would Mondo want to spend time with him outside of school? No one ever volunteers to spend time with him outside of school, so this struck him as odd.

Regardless, Mondo looked excited when he’d asked, for whatever reason. And Taka wasn’t one to let his friend down if he had a chance to prevent it. So, despite the fact that motorcycles are just generally dangerous, Taka decided to take the offer.

“I suppose… if you really want me to ride with you, I don't see why not?” He sounded a bit unsure, but once he saw his friend’s tentative smile at his reply, Taka straightened his posture a little and forced some confidence.

“Wait really?” Mondo seemed pleasantly surprised, a smile forming on his face.

“Bro, you won’t regret this, trust me.” Mondo said, and then proceeded to toss the extra helmet to Ishimaru.

Taka fumbled with the helmet a bit before fully catching it, holding it in his hands. He looked down at it and felt nervousness well up inside him. He looked to Mondo. As he saw his excited grin when he pulled his own helmet on (the fact that he fit all of his hair in there is defying the laws of physics), Taka sighed, and pulled the spare onto his head.

He saw Mondo walk over to his motorcycle and sit on it. When he then waved Taka over, he begrudgingly followed his friend. Mondo outstretched his hand to Taka, who then took it, and was pulled up onto the motorcycle. A small noise of surprise left his mouth as he suddenly was sitting a foot off the ground on a motorcycle. 

“O-oh! Um, how do I…?” He held his arms out as he sat stiffly on the seat. 

“Wrap your arms around me so you don’t fall off.” Mondo yelled so Ishimaru could hear him past his helmet.

Taka looked down at his hands (if they were shaking a bit, no one needed to know), and then at Mondo in front of him. This felt a bit like a breach of personal space on Mondo’s half, but if he really insisted on Taka taking a ride with him, he must be okay with the physical contact. So, Taka wrapped his arms around Mondo, still trying to keep a good space between his chest and Mondo’s back. So, the position he was in was a bit uncomfortable and awkward. Mondo seemed to notice the lack of contact with Ishimaru and turned to face him. If his helmet was off, Taka would know he’d be giving him a questioning look. Ishimaru just waved him off dismissively.

“All good back here!” He said, forcing enthusiasm into his voice. He gave a small thumbs up, and Mondo nodded.

“Okay, hold on!” Ishimaru heard Mondo shout. Then in a few seconds, the motorcycle’s stand was kicked in, the engine was turned on, and Taka felt them both begin to move.

It took him a little off guard, causing him to tighten his hold around Mondo a little. However they were still in a parking lot, so Mondo couldn’t go too fast. However, that soon changed when Mondo exited school property and entered the road. Under the helmet, Mondo gave a small self-satisfied smirk. The wheels touched the open road, and Mondo floored it.

The car lurched and Taka could practically feel himself slipping off the back. He reached forward and wrapped his arms around Mondo’s middle, pulling himself against his back with no regard to personal space this time and more concerned with not being forced off the back. He felt an involuntary scream leave his mouth, followed by a series of “Oh my God”s. Taka pressed his head into Mondo’s back, and felt him move with laughter.

“You doing alright back there?” Taka heard him ask, his voice amused. Taka replied by holding on tighter, closing his eyes and opening his mouth for only a small whimper to come out.

Mondo’s smile grew a bit taught in worry. He knew nothing bad was gonna happen to Taka. Mondo had gone biking in this thing too many times for doubt of it’s safety to cross his mind. But Taka did seem pretty scared. He didn’t wanna give the dude a heart attack.

“We can stop if you wanna.” Mondo offered. Taka simply shook his head against Mondo’s back.

“No!” He yelled out.

“It’s fine! This is fine, I’m fine, we’re fi-” he was cut off as they hit a bump, a shout involuntarily making its way out of his mouth.

Mondo made a concerned face under his mask, and ultimately decided to slow the motorcycle down. He pulled into an empty parking lot and slowed to a stop, although Taka didn’t seem to notice this as he was still firmly attached to Mondo’s back like a koala to a branch. Mondo laughed.

“We stopped.” He said, and Taka opened his eyes. He soon realized that yes, they were stopped and stationary. He turned to Mondo, before slowly releasing his death grip on him. Mondo then took his helmet off and stepped off of the motorbike giving Taka an apologetic smile.

“Sorry bro. I know you aren’t really the adrenaline junkie, but I thought you might like it. It’s uh, it’s fine if you don’t.” He says a bit sheepishly.

Taka brings trembling hands to take the helmet off. As soon as his face was visible, Taka attempted to give Mondo a reassuring smile, although it came off more like a grimace.

“No, its fine. I-it wasn’t that bad.” He said, stepping off of the motorcycle. As soon as his feet hit the ground, his legs felt like jello from the adrenaline and panic from the ride. He tripped and almost fell but was stopped by Mondo’s hands being quick to hold his elbow and back. 

“Woah, you alright bro?” Mondo asked. Taka responded with a small, slightly forced laugh.

“Fine. I’m fine, I’m okay. Just a bit shaken. That was uh… fun! It was fun. Just, uh, m-maybe warn me next time you speed up that quickly. Or just take it slow.” He ended the sentence with a shaky smile. Mondo returned the smile at the words “next time”, implying that Taka was okay with them doing this again.

Mondo helped Taka to his feet, making sure he wasn’t gonna trip and fall again before removing his hands. Taka took the moment to look around, take in the parking lot and where they were. As soon as Taka spotted a nearby subway station, he turned to Mondo.

“No offense bro, but would you mind if I took the subway back to the dorms? I’d rather not get back on the bike today, if that’s okay.” He asked sheepishly.

Mondo simply laughed.

“Nah, that’s fine, I don’t mind. Meet you back at the dorms then?”

Taka nodded, then waved him off. Mondo got back onto his motorcycle, and Taka crossed the street to the subway station (of course he walked all the way to the crosswalk and waited for the light before crossing. What are you, crazy? He’s not gonna jaywalk, that’s against the law!). They went their separate ways, before meeting back up at the school.

This most definitely wasn’t the last time they rode that bike together though.


	2. It's In the Brownies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiro accidentally drugs class 78 of Hope's Peak Academy at a Halloween party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never personally used marijuana or seen someone while using it, so I don't have a whole lot of knowledge on the topic, so if this is inaccurate, it's probably because I'm pretty sure this chapter isn't 100% medically accurate by any standards.
> 
> tw for underage drug use and non consensual drug use, obviously

Class 78 of Hope’s Peak Academy had decided to throw a Halloween party this year. The students don’t normally throw parties in the school, so they weren’t really planning on celebrating Halloween this year. However the teachers eventually relented after enough begging from Leon, Aoi, Chihiro, and surprisingly, Celeste. So, the four of them (plus Kirigiri who decided to help) had spent the entire day setting up decorations in the commons. They’d used the school’s money to buy the supplies and such, but they were required to buy/make their own costumes, as well as bring some kind of food or drink to share with everyone else. Everyone had money given to them from the school, so it was fairly easy.

Once the commons were all set up, the five of them left to put on their costumes before returning back to the commons, aside from Kirigiri, who left to go get Makoto. Leon was in a zombie baseball player costume that was just an old torn up baseball uniform with fake blood smeared on it, Aoi was dressed as a mermaid, Chihiro was dressed as a mad scientist (and was getting really into character, who knew Chihiro liked Halloween so much?), and Celeste adorned a very intricate and detailed old fashioned witch costume. 

The four of them hung out in the commons and waited for more people to show up. Kirigiri returned dressed as Sherlock Holmes with an embarrassed Makoto wearing a cat onesie and he had to explain he forgot about Halloween and had to improvise. Then Taka and Mondo showed up, Taka wearing a vampire costume and Mondo a headless horseman/motorcyclist. Then Sakura, wearing her karate uniform and saying it’s technically a costume. Then Hiro in a cheap fortune teller costume, Sayaka as a demon, Hifumi as some obscure anime character. Byakuya was dressed up in a very detailed costume with a masquerade mask and a cape and many other ornate details, while Toko was wearing a store-bought witch costume (Celeste won’t stop making fun of her for it) because she didn’t really want to come, but because Togami was coming she decided to show up. Last was Junko and Mukuro, wearing a Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy costume.

The party starts, and it’s going well. Everyone brought snacks, there’s chips, Pepsi, cookies, brownies, pasta salad, those little cheese cube things, all sorts of stuff. There were some games set up by the five who started the whole game. They weren’t very detailed or over the top since they were made by five teenagers, just some basic games like “Try to get the oreo from your forehead to your mouth” or the apple dunk game. They’d blown up some inflatables in the gym, and Chihiro had set up some video game/VR stuff in the commons. Overall, it was pretty fun. In the beginning.

Mondo and Ishimaru decided to get some snacks, and were sitting in the lunchroom eating a bunch of junk food and talking. Ishimaru was taking a bite of a brownie as Mondo stood up.

“C’mon bro, hurry up so we can get to the games. Celeste and I are planning on bettin’ on the winners and I plan on kickin’ her ass.” He said with a smirk. Ishimaru simply rolled his eyes

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You are aware that she’s the Ultimate Gambler, right?” He questioned

Mondo scoffed. “Yeah, that’s why it’s gonna be even better when I beat her.”

“Just don’t bet too much then.” Taka said before taking another bite of the brownie. As he ate it, he made a small face of disgust, causing Mondo to look down at him with a quirked eyebrow.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

Ishimaru shook his head no. “It’s nothing really, but uh, do you think this tastes funny?” He holds out the brownie for Mondo to take. Mondo takes the brownie and eats the rest of it.

As he chews it, he does realize that yeah, this does taste a little strange. He kind of feels like he recognizes this taste from somewhere, but he can’t quite put his finger on it.

Then it hits him, and he knows. 

_Oh, it’s weed._

Holding back a laugh, Mondo gives Taka a cool smile.

“Nope! Tastes pretty normal to me.”

Taka hummed, thinking about it for a second before dropping it.

“Okay. Well, we should get going to the gym if you wanna catch up with Celeste.”

They left the cafeteria, forgetting about the strange tasting brownies for now and heading to the gym.

Mondo and Celeste began betting on the games, with Celeste sweeping the floor with him every time. As they’re watching Leon and Sayaka play the oreo game, Mondo hears Taka start walking away from them.

“I’m gonna go get some more food. Want anything while I’m there?” He asks Mondo, who looks up at him with a bit of surprise.

“Oh, no thanks.”

Taka nods, then leaves the gym to go to the cafeteria. Mondo looks away from Taka to see Celeste looking at them with a small grin.

“He ate the brownies?” She asked, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Mondo looked a bit shocked at this.

“You know?”

Celeste laughed. “Oh please, I could smell them before I put them anywhere near my mouth. You think I don’t know what weed smells like?”

This was unexpected, but now that he thought about it, it made sense that Celste of all the people here would know what weed smells like, considering how many casinos she’s been in. She smirked at him.

“Better make sure your boyfriend doesn’t eat too many of them. Although, I am very curious to see what he’d be like while inebriated.”

Mondo rolled his eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. And I’m not worried ‘bout what he does or doesn’t eat. He can get as high as he wants for all I care.” He tried not to sound too defensive at the boyfriend comment (it’s not working) while Celeste looked on with an amused expression of disbelief.

“If you say so.” She doesn’t push anymore, not because she believes him, but because she honestly kind of wants to see how this plays out. This party was starting to get a little boring anyway.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

It’d been quite a few minutes since then, and Celeste and Mondo had noticed that there wasn’t really anyone playing the games anymore. They were about to go their separate ways, as Celeste was getting bored and about to go back to her room and Mondo hadn’t seen Taka in a while and was getting worried. But as they were about to leave the gym, they heard some really loud banging noises coming from the bouncy castle, followed by a familiar gruff yet feminine voice yell “Asahina stop it!”

Mondo and Celeste shared a look before both heading towards the bouncy castles. When they arrived, they saw Asahina standing on top of the castle, her arms spread out wide.

“I’m a bird Sakura!” She shouted with a wide smile on her face.

“You’re not a bird Hina, now get down before you hurt yourself!” Sakura asked, standing under the bouncy castle in front of where Asahina was standing. Celeste snickered at the sight, and Mondo couldn’t help the reluctant smile that crossed his face. Sakura spotted Celeste and Mondo next to the castle but didn’t say anything to them, as she soon noticed Hina jump off of the castle.

“Weeeeeee!” Asahina shouted, now falling to the ground. Sakura easily caught Aoi in her arms, although she had a worried look on her face as she held a giggling Aoi in her arms. She let out a small series of “Wooo!”s as she waved her arms around with half-lidded eyes. Celeste stepped forward.

“Well, she’s sure acting weird.” She commented. Sakura narrowed her eyes at the much smaller girl.

“What’d you do.” She pointed an accusatory glare at Celeste, who just chuckled.

“Oh, _I_ didn’t do anything. But, the brownies might’ve.” 

Sakura’s eyes widened at that.

“What’d you put in them?”

Celeste shrugged. “I didn’t bring the brownies, I brought the cupcakes. But, the brownies did taste a bit strange, I’ll admit.”

Mondo knew that was a lie, she didn’t even eat one. But he didn’t comment on it, letting Sakura remain confused as to not call out Celeste and get on her bad side (Mondo might be dumb and strong, but he’s smart enough to know that girl is _scary_ ). 

Before anyone could say or do anything else, however, they were interrupted with the doors to the gym opening a little hastily. It was then they realized that there were only four students in the gym, which, considering there are 16 students in total, that’s kind of strange. They all turned to look at the doors, and saw a worried looking Mukuro standing in the doorway.

“Is something wrong?” Sakura asked the girl, who looked a little like she was in a hurry, and a bit out of breath as though she’d been running.

“There’s a problem. In the cafeteria.” She said in her no-nonsense tone, clipped and to the point, although there was an underlying tone of urgency now.

Celeste smirked, and Sakura immediately walked towards the door.

“What do you mean?” The taller girl asked.

“Everyone’s acting strange. I think it’s best if you see for yourself.” Mukuro gestured to the door, her eyes briefly locking onto the giggly Asahina in Sakura’s arms. Sakura nodded, and left the room with Mukuro. Mondo soon followed, with Celeste behind him.

“Well, this just got interesting. I think I might stick around for a while.”

They all reached the cafeteria, and it soon became apparent why Mukuro had come looking for help.

The first thing that caught their attention was the person standing on top of a table, Sayaka, who was singing very loudly and not entirely bad but still worse than she normally would, with no music in the background holding a paper towel tube to her mouth instead of a microphone. There was Leon directly in front of her, cheering and throwing handfuls of chips at her. Above them both was Junko swinging back and forth on a chandelier, laughing almost maniacally. Hifumi was just passed out on the ground, snoring loudly with a plate of half-eaten food on his stomach. There were three students on the couches to the side of the room. Kirigiri was lying face up on the couch, her eyes wide and staring up at the ceiling, but the steady rise and fall of her chest showed that she wasn’t dead, just on a different plane of reality. On a different couch there was Byakuya and Toko. One of which was crying loudly and the other was sitting next to him, trying and failing to console him while clutching one of her braids in her hands.

Mondo was about to comment on Ishimaru being missing, but was soon cut off by an arm grabbing tightly onto his arm. He looked down to see his friend looking up at him with bright eyes and a big smile.

“Hey broooo~!” Taka said in a sing-songy fashion, and Mondo almost pulled his arm away because this felt wrong. He could hear Celeste bent over laughing behind him, apparently finding the state of her fellow students incredibly amusing. Mondo looked down at Taka and sighed, picking him up bridal style. As soon as he was in Mondo’s arms, he wrapped his own around Mondo’s neck. He clung to Mondo like a Koala, his head resting against his shoulder.

"Mmm, you're soft Mondo." He mumbled into Mondo's shoulder. Mondo felt his face grow a bit red, but he ignored that in favor of turning to the only other sober people at the party as they talked to each other.

"Toko seems to have Byakuya under control. I don't think we'll have to worry about Hifumi or Kirigiri, as they seem a bit... indisposed right now." Mukuro said, and Sakura nodded.

"For the rest of them, the couch seems like a good spot to put them. I have Asahina, Mondo you have Ishimaru, Celeste if you could get Sayaka off of the table and her and Leon over to the couch, that'd be great. Mukuro, I expect you can handle your sister." Sakura explained to them the best course of action. Celeste groaned.

"Do I have to? It's not my fault they didn't taste the weed."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You're sober. We need as much help as we can get here." 

Celeste relented, and took off towards Leon and Sayaka.

Mondo and Sakura took Ishimaru and Aoi to the couches and set them down next to the crying Byakuya and catatonic Kyoko. They stayed with the drugged students while Celeste finally coaxed Sayaka off of the table and brought them both to the couch while roughly holding them both by the hands. Leon tried to latch onto Celeste like Taka had to Mondo, but Celeste had a very different reaction and almost strangled Leon before Sakura separated them.

They stayed with the others, but soon they heard some yelling from the chandelier.

"I COULD USE A LITTLE HELP OVER HERE!" Mukuro yelled from where she was trying to get Junko down without hurting her. Sakura sighed, as did Celeste, who both walked over to the main area.

"Stay here and look after the others." Sakura told Mondo, who was happy to stay put. 

It was relatively easy to just sit there and prevent the intoxicated students from leaving the couches. A problem arose however, when Mondo heard a scream from behind one of the couches. It scared the shit out of him when he heard it, and then he realized that it came from the space between the couch and the wall. There were only so many people who could fit behind there, and to Mondo it looked like almost everyone was present.

He hesitated before standing up on the couch and turning his back to the other students to look behind the couch. To his surprise, it was another student that he'd seem to have forgotten about.

Behind the couch was a curled up Makoto, red-rimmed eyes wide as he trembled and clutched the fabric of his costume (onesie) tight. He looked terrified.

_Ah, bad trip._

Mondo reached down to try and pick Naegi up and pull him out so he could join the others, but his hand was quickly slapped away by a panicked Makoto, who quickly sat up in the space behind the couch. His gaze was focused not on Mondo but on a space vaguely behind Mondo.

"NO! Don't… don't touch me…" He said, curling in further on himself.

Mondo rolled his eyes and grabbed the hood of Makoto's hoodie, pulling him up and over the couch like a kitten (ironic considering his costume choice). This elicited another scream from the smaller boy, and Mondo almost dropped him out of surprise. He yanked Makoto over the couch and sat him down, allowing him to cower into the fetal position in the corner of the couch. Mondo turned away from Naegi, but then felt his heart drop at what he saw. Or, in reality, what he didn't see.

Leon, Sayaka, Ishimaru, and Aoi, were all gone.

Of course his first thought was to panic, which he decided to do internally, saving his time to try and figure out where the four students went. He turned to Toko. "You know where they went?" He questioned.

"Two went to the snack area, other two left to the hallway." She said, surprisingly calm.

"And you didn't stop them?!" Mondo asked incredulously. Toko simply pointed to Togami on her lap.

"He's too heavy, I can't move."

Mondo barely registered that last comment as he took off towards the hallway. They couldn't have gone too far, he only looked at Makoto for maybe a minute tops.

He wandered the hallways for a few minutes, looking unsuccessfully for two of the missing students. Thankfully, he did eventually find them.

Leon and Sayaka were both sleeping peacefully against the wall, curled together in a tangle of limbs. Mondo sighed, realizing he would probably have to either carry or drag these two back to the commons. And he was right, since he couldn't get them to wake up. He decided to pry the two friends apart, sling Sayaka over his shoulder, and grab Leon's sleeve.

He proceeded to carry Sayaka and drag Leon all the way back to the commons. He opened the door and unceremoniously tossed both of the unconscious students onto a couch. He noticed that Junko was sitting on a couch as well, essentially tied up by a wrap of blankets so she couldn’t escape. He also noticed that despite this, neither Sakura, Celeste, or Mukuro could be seen. He turned to Toko who was still on the couch under a now asleep Togami. She gestured to the area where the food was being kept.

"They found the other two missing ones. Aoi and Taka are throwing up all over the food."

Mondo cringed slightly at that, but knew he should probably help them deal with that. He nodded to Toko, and then took off for the other area of the commons.  
When he reached the area with the food, he could tell he'd been a little late to have been of any use. Mukuro was using a towel to wipe up what looked like partially digested brownies (ew), and Sakura and Celeste were sitting on the floor with Aoi and Ishimaru on their laps. Sakura was running her hand through Hina's hair, while Celeste just stared at Taka with a vague look of disgust, her hands planted firmly at her sides. When she noticed Mondo enter the room, she glared at him.

"Took you long enough, asshole. Come get your boy toy off of me, he smells like vomit." Mondo almost got mad at her for calling Taka a "boy toy", but was cut off when the boy in question was shoved into his chest. Taka, apparently still conscious, wrapped his arms around Mondo’s chest. Mondo held him upright when he almost fell over, and he could feel a groan being suppressed into his chest.

"Mondo I threw up…" He mumbled into Mondo's shirt.

Mondo sighed and scooped Taka into his arms again. "I know."

All of the kids were brought back to the couches, where they stayed the rest of the night without anyone successfully running off. They found out that Hiro had accidentally brought weed brownies instead of normal ones, and being the responsible adult that he is, he set out a bunch of food and water for the sleeping kids and said to just make sure they flushed it out of their system and they'd be good. After a good few smacks from an annoyed Celeste, he promised he wouldn't do it again.

They found Chihiro asleep in the ceiling where the lights are. Apparently he was also high, had managed to climb to the place where the lights were and programmed them to change colors, but they can only change to orange or black.

No one knows how to change it back, so they just left it like that.

Other than that, it was a pretty normal Halloween.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is gonna have a pretty inconsistent upload schedule, so sorry about that. Good job for making it to the end!


	3. A Shark and A Puppy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Soda has a huge fear of thunderstorms, and comes to Gundham for comfort. To Soda's surprise, this ends with him meeting someone new.
> 
> TW: Anxiety attack, biting oneself, brief mention of blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah the title isn't creative, I'm tired what do you want from me.

Hope's Peak Academy, the world's most influential high school, is almost constantly surrounded by fair weather. Surprisingly, the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the school doesn't match the calm and easily predicted outside world. This seemingly inconsequential fact wouldn't matter to most, but for Kazuichi Soda, this one fact brought him loads of relief. The reason behind this is simple. Although Soda's life is mostly an open book to his classmates, there is one not-so-well-known fact about himself that he tends to keep hidden, and that is his incredible fear of thunderstorms.

This isn't exactly an irrational fear. A rough childhood and some memories that somehow always get dragged up by the booming thunder doesn't make for a present experience. That doesn't mean the others won't make fun of him, like he'd been made fun of for this fear before. It's just some noises, what does he have to be afraid of? It's not like the storm is gonna hurt him.  
He doesn't normally have to worry about this though, because of the usually clear skies surrounding his school. Tonight, however, as Soda huddles under the covers of his bed and lightning cracks across the darkened sky with a shaking boom, he realizes the luck he'd previously had finally ran out. 

With each lightning strike and following thunder, the building gives a little shake, and Soda's grip on his covers get a little tighter. He's trembling despite his best efforts, and a few stray tears fall down his cheeks and onto his pillow. He’s so much older now, he should be able to deal with this alone. His arms wrapped around his middle tightly in a self hug, and he was curled up in the fetal position. As much as he hated himself for it, he so desperately didn’t want to be alone right now. He didn’t want to be clingy, but he craved the feeling of arms wrapped around him, and that familiar deep voice telling him everything was going to be okay. 

He’d only recently grown close to the Ultimate Breeder, but in that short amount of time, they’d found they shared more in common than they thought, and Gundham made Soda more comfortable than anyone had before, for some unexplained reason. Being around Gundham just made Soda feel more at ease, and he desperately needed that right now. 

Soda slowly crawled out from under his covers, goosebumps raising up where his skin met the cold air. He stepped out, legs trembling slightly as his body shook with uncontrolled fear. Soda let his eyes focus on his door in the dark, the only illumination in his room coming from a bright, distant strike of lightning. Doubt creeped into Soda’s mind. 

_It’s super late, what if I wake him up?  
What if he makes fun of me? He doesn’t seem like the guy to do that, but what if he does anyway?  
What if he thinks I’m too needy and stops talking to me? I don’t want him to stop talking to me._

His inner rambles continued for a good few seconds, before his mind was made up by the resounding clap of thunder from the earlier lightning strike, and he darted to the door without a second thought. 

As he ran down the halls of his school’s boys’ dorms, he was somewhat aware of the noise he was making, trying to keep the padding of his bare feet on tile and heavy breathing to a minimum. It wasn’t too loud to begin with, but someone who was already awake may be startled by the noise from outside. Soda was honestly only comfortable with one person seeing him like this right now, so having an uninterrupted path to his companion’s dorm would be the best possible outcome.

Luckily for him, either everyone was asleep or if anyone was awake they didn’t hear him or didn’t care, because he was standing outside the Ultimate Breeder’s dorm before he knew it. Before he could regret his decision and retreat back to his room, Soda psyched himself up, and knocked on the door in front of him swiftly and loud enough to get the person inside’s attention whether they were awake or not. 

Soda nervously rocked on his feet as he waited for Gundham to answer the door, his eyes darting around for something to focus on. Much too fast for Gundham to have been asleep, there was a click on the other side of the door, and it swung open. Soda glanced up and met Gundham’s eyes, noticing the breeder wasn’t wearing his contacts, scarf, makeup so he was most likely preparing to go to bed. Soda felt seeds of guilt plant themselves in his gut, and a part of him wished he’d never come.

“Mechanic? What brings you here at such a late hour?” Gundham questions, looking the pink haired boy over in confusion.

Soda swallowed, now realizing he was unprepared for what he was gonna do when he got here.

“H-Hey Gundham. I was just, uh… coming over to see how the Devas were doing. This storm is getting pretty bad, isn’t it?” 

_Wow, that was a terrible excuse._

Gundham also seemed to realize this was a terrible excuse, as he quirked an eyebrow at Soda’s response.

“You were checking on the Devas? Because you are concerned about their wellbeing in this storm? I assure you mortal, if the Dark Devas of Destruction were even the least bit fearful of this pitiful storm, I’d have it under control.” He states cooly, obviously not believing Soda’s excuse.

Soda stood still for a second, before letting out a sigh, mentally berating himself for what he should’ve known was a bad idea.

“Nevermind.” Soda mumbled, almost too quiet for Gundham to hear. With a small frown on his face and his eyes staring down at his feet, Soda started to walk back to his dorm.

Both fortunately and unfortunately for him, it was that exact moment a boom decided to echo through the school, causing the fear Soda had previously forgotten to ripple through him with a vengeance. Soda’s hands, which had previously been at his sides, instinctively wrapped around his sides, and he curled into himself. A whimper involuntarily left his mouth, and he closed his eyes tight as his heartbeat increased against his will. Panic welled up inside him, and he let out a yell when a hand gently grabbed his shoulder. Soda jumped back and turned around, covering his mouth when he realized he was still in the middle of the hallway. Facing Gundham, he noticed the startled look on his face.

“Oh, my apologies. I didn’t realize you might not want to be touched right now…” He said, drawing his hands back. 

Instead of replying, Soda pushed his hand against his mouth further, trying to keep his out of control breathing at bay and failing. Feeling a surge of unnecessary adrenaline as another crack of thunder sounded, Soda felt himself bite into his hand, trying to calm himself down. His eyes darted around, unable to truly focus on one thing. Before he realized it, hands were being brought to his face, and slowly, one grabbed onto the hand Soda was biting, clamped over his mouth. Soda flinched, but didn’t move away, so, even slower, maintaining eye contact with Soda, Gundham pulled Soda’s hand away from his mouth, showing the small trickle of blood running down Soda’s chin and palm from where his sharpened teeth had dug into flesh.   
Eventually, Gundham held both of Soda’s hands in his. Soda stared ahead, still trembling and breathing hard and fast. Without saying anything, Gundham brought Soda into his room, guiding him to the bed, where the four Dark Devas of Destruction sat, looking up at their owner in confusion.

Gundham gently sat the panicking Soda on his bed, looked over to the Devas, nodded to them, then turned back to Soda. They locked eyes, pleading pink meeting apologetic red. Gundham gave Kazuichi’s uninjured hand a light squeeze, accompanying it with a small smile.

“Do not fret, I shall return shortly.” He tries to reassure Soda, who simply stared ahead.

Gundham darted off through the open door of his dorm, leaving Soda with the Devas. Now alone, Soda curled back up again, pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. When his breathing started to become erratic at another clap of thunder, some squeaking next to him forced his attention to the Devas, who were gathering around him. The four of them crawled onto him, one on his knee, two on his shoulders, and one on his head. It wasn’t much, but their presence soothed him a little, and he felt his breathing slow to a more healthier but not quite normal level.

After a few minutes of Soda silently trying to calm himself with the help of the Devas, Gundham returned. Only this time, he wasn’t alone. In his hands was something pink and made of leather. A leesh.

Confused and now intrigued, Soda sat up, trying to see what was at the end of it. With a gentle tug, the animal on the other end came into full view, and Soda heard a tiny gasp escape his lips.

A tiny German Shepard puppy looked around, its tongue out and tail wagging. It jumped forward, and Gundham bent over to unhook it’s collar. As soon as it was free, it barked, and bounded over to Soda, who had unfurled his legs and was staring down at the puppy in disbelief. Soda reached down and scratched the puppy on the head, who in turn started licking his palm. He continued to pet the small dog, feeling his tension slowly leave his body as his focus remained solely on the puppy. At one point, Soda picked the puppy up and set him on the bed, where the puppy decided to lay on Soda’s lap and allow the teen to pet him without having to bend over.

The petting was only interrupted by the noise of shuffling, and Soda looked up to see Gundham had been standing there the whole time. He rubbed the pack of his neck sheepishly, feeling like he was out of his element.

“I um, I brought you this small beast to calm you. I heard animal companions can help with mortals experiencing emotional distress.” 

Soda and the puppy on his lap turned to look at Gundham as he spoke, and when he stopped, they both stared at him, expecting him to continue. Gundham felt his cheeks heat up, and he pulled the scarf over his face to cover it.

“H-he was supposed to be a gift. I had been informed that this breed of dog was your preferred one, so I thought you might like it.” He began mumbling towards the end, turning his face away and burying it further into his scarf.

Soda’s eyes widened a bit in disbelief, glancing from Gundham to the puppy. 

“This little dude… is mine?” He asked, petting the small dog once more. Gundham nodded.

“This canine is yours to keep.” 

Soda felt tears prickle at the corner of his eyes, his heart warmed at the thought that someone else would do something like this for him, especially after finding out he was afraid of something as insignificant as thunderstorms. Not only did he not make fun of him, but he brought him a dog, and one that was meant to be his anyway.

“That’s… the nicest thing anyone’s done for me. Thanks dude.”

Hearing that, Gundham loosened his hold on his scarf, the edge of a smile peeking out from under it at the complement.

“I need no thanks. Finding such a perfect beast was no challenge for a fiend like-”

Gundham was cut off by a particularly loud clap of thunder which shook the building, the lightning before it casting Gundham’s room on white light. The dog looked up at the window, ears perked up at the surprising noise, and Soda let out a small whimper, curling around himself again. The dog, sensing his new owner’s panic, barked, licking Soda’s hand to get his attention. Soda turned to the dog and focused on him, beginning to pet the dog’s soft fur once again. He managed not to succumb to the panic this time, instead allowing himself to look at the dog and try to tune out the loud sounds of rain on the window.

Trying not to interrupt Soda, Gundham quietly walked over to the bed, sitting on the edge of it away from Soda and the dog. He waited until Soda was fully calmed, before speaking.

“You can take the dog with you, if you wish to leave.” He said, turned away. He didn’t sound upset by any means, but the tone of his voice indicated that he fully expected Soda to leave once the dog was introduced.

Soda thought about this for only a few seconds, then remembered the reason he came here in the first place. With the dog still in his lap, Soda scooted down the bed until he was next to Gundham, and placed his hand over Gundham’s. Confused, the breeder turned to look at Soda, who had a small, nervous grin on his face.

“I’ll stay.”

The exchange was awkward, but it got the point across. Gundham’s face turned beet red again, although this time he made no attempt to hide it. He cleared his throat, trying to regain some of his usual confidence.

“W-well, in that case, me and your new animal companion shall protect you from the wretched thunder!” The dog barked in agreement with Gundham’s yelling, standing up and wagging his tail, causing Soda to let out a small chuckle, one that abruptly stopped at the sound of another clap of thunder. 

Now knowing to act faster this time, Gundham set Soda up in the bed with the dog, giving his adequate pillows and blankets.This time, Soda didn’t have the chance to panic, surrounded by warmth, a dog, and his the person he was closest to. The thunder passed, and Gundham sat down on top of the covers on the space next to Soda. They intertwined their hands over the covers, allowing Gundham to give Soda’s hand a light squeeze anytime a flash or boom would make itself known. They fell into a routine of this, with the dog and Gundham’s presence both eventually allowing Soda to fully feel the weight of the tiredness that’d been dragging him down since he arrived at Gundham’s door. He felt safe here, with Gundham next to him and his new dog in his lap. He drifted off, and eventually fell asleep, surrounded by comfort.

If the next morning, Hajime came to check on them and found them cuddled together, limbs tangled in the sheets, with a mysterious puppy laying in between them, well, no one else needed to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading you funky little human being.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for making it to the end! That's pretty cool, so good job.


End file.
